Accessing Past Lives With Saqib Rizvi

Hello and welcome to the Awakening to Purpose podcast.

I'm your host Lou Redmond,

Meditation artist,

Life coach,

And your friend on this soul journey.

Thank you so much for being here.

I can't wait to share this conversation that I had with Saqib Rizvi.

We discuss so much.

Saqib is a breath of knowledge in very interesting topics.

We go deep on past lives,

Timeless manifestation.

We talk about the perfectness and the imperfectness of the world and war and purpose and Saqib's unique view on productivity,

On finding your purpose,

Finding your gifts.

There's a paradox to it if you listen.

And where he's been tripped up and where we might get tripped up in our ego gratifications and things to look out for on this awakening path.

So I think you're gonna really enjoy this conversation.

I know I had so much fun talking to my friend Saqib.

I'm grateful that I get a chance to know some of the people that come on this podcast.

So without further ado,

Enjoy my conversation with Saqib Rizvi.

Welcome everyone to the Awakening to Purpose podcast.

This is your host Lou Redmond and today we have a special guest,

A friend,

A fellow journeyer,

A fellow teacher,

Saqib Rizvi.

I believe I'm saying his last name right.

Saqib is a meditation and emotional healing coach,

A spiritual mentor,

A lifelong student.

He has five plus years of experience in one-on-one sessions,

Group coaching sessions,

Workshops.

He's also trained in neuro linguistic programming and is a Reiki practitioner.

And he adds a self-proclaimed mystic.

And me and Saqib,

We've been a part of a mastermind in the past couple months and have gotten a chance to connect.

And the way that I look at some of Saqib's work that I mentioned to him recently is also a spiritual grandfather.

He is a wise man,

A wise elder.

I respect the breadth and the depth of his work.

And so Saqib,

Welcome to the show.

My pleasure,

Totally here Lou.

And I'm really excited about this because,

You know,

We have recently,

I think not long ago,

We started talking to each other and you know,

We became friends.

And I think this is something I'm really looking forward to.

So I'm going to ask you a question that I have a tough time answering myself,

But I like asking other people that are in similar situations,

This question.

If you tell people that you're a meditation teacher,

And they ask,

What kind of meditation do you teach?

How do you respond to that?

That's a difficult question.

Because,

You know,

Meditation can have so many different meanings.

So to that,

I say that it is all about going within yourself.

And it is all and you know,

That journey is different.

You know,

I see,

You know,

If we talk about any end goal,

Although there is no end goal as such to this journey,

But if we let's say hypothetically assume that there is an end goal,

And that end goal is enlightenment.

So I see enlightenment as a,

You know,

Mountain,

Mountaintop,

And you reach that mountaintop through different paths.

So one can really not define that what path we take,

You know,

Or what trail we take to that mountaintop.

So I feel that it cannot really be defined.

But yes,

If I have to define it,

I would just say,

It's an inner journey,

And which path you take on that inner journey is totally your choice.

So yeah,

That's my answer.

What I'm hearing is,

You support others in their own unique inner path.

And that's gonna look different for everyone.

So it's more personalized,

Rather than if I was coming to you to learn specifically,

Zen Buddhism,

That would be more of like,

A more structured path to learn rather than individualized path.

Yeah,

That's correct.

And,

You know,

That's,

I think one of my,

One of my paths has been to de-institutionalize meditation,

To take the institution away from the meditation.

Because although such discipline can be helpful,

For example,

Zen,

It's a very discipline oriented practice,

Right?

And such discipline is good.

But I believe that each one of us has a unique path to that.

You know,

If you are,

For example,

You know,

If Zen works for you,

Zen might not work for me.

And if,

You know,

Some practice works for someone,

It might not work for the other person.

So I feel that everyone has a has a different path to meditation.

And yes,

That's what my way of meditation approaching meditation is to figure out if I'm working,

For example,

With a client,

I would like to figure out what the style of meditation for this client works best.

You know,

Some people have a path of are introverted.

So they like going within their themselves.

But some people like to relate with others and meditate with others.

So maybe that's their path.

So it's it's very different for everyone.

Yeah,

It's interesting the Zen it's I've seen I feel like when I hear people one I know someone that's in a Zen monastery right now.

And I could see how it fits perfectly for this guy.

And I'm totally judging him in some ways by explaining that because it's so structured.

It's so rigid.

It's so by the book.

And there's a part of me that feels like maybe I need that because I'm so averse to that.

But when I hear Zen teachers,

It seems like Zen is a training and discipline where it's like,

One plus one equals enlightenment.

Like it feels like there's a lot of really like realized beings that have gone through a Zen training that I have,

You know,

See and learn from I know Adi Ashanti early on that was part of his journey.

But I think I think you're more influenced from what I understand maybe a more of like the Ramana Maharshi's or the the what's his name?

Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Yeah,

So there I feel like they're more.

They're more just just just ask who I am or just like go.

There's not really a teaching,

Right?

There's not a huge like body of work that is getting you there.

Yeah,

Yeah,

You're totally right.

You know,

And what I feel is that,

For example,

Zen and that,

You know,

Disciplined approach in if we talk about Buddhism,

There are three levels to approaching meditation.

And the first one is Hinayana,

Which is also called Theravada tradition.

The second is Mahayana and the third one is Vajrayana.

So Hinayana is all about discipline.

Theravada is all about discipline.

And it is good for early practitioners where,

You know,

If for example,

If I'm finding it difficult to meditate or to sit with myself and I find myself getting up all the time and there are so many thoughts in my head.

So that discipline can be really helpful.

So I go through the Hinayana path.

But then comes a point where I am disciplined.

I can sit in meditation now easily.

But now I have to make it a more of an intuitive practice where I'm deciding for myself,

Which is more of my approach that,

You know,

Okay,

Let it be intuitive.

Whatever works for you,

You know,

Take that and go with that.

If you feel like doing chakra practice,

Do that.

If you feel like just sitting in pure awareness,

Just do that.

But then there's a third level,

Which is Vajrayana or it is also known as the diamond method,

Which is letting go of all kinds of practices and just simply being,

You know,

And just simply being conscious.

And that's the only practice you do.

You are simply conscious,

You don't do any other practice,

You are just observing.

So I feel that these three,

And you know,

As you also mentioned,

Zen and that discipline,

That's necessary for different stages in life,

And also for different kinds of people.

So there is no judgment around what's right or what's wrong.

It's just that what's good for me that that works best.

Do you feel or have had times when I know I'll speak for myself when I read accounts of a Ram Dass finding his guru or someone finding their teacher and just being falling into bliss and realizing this is my guru,

This is the my person.

Have you had that experience?

Or how do you think of that experience?

Because for me,

I feel like I like to jump from thing to thing.

And I wish I had one teacher,

I wish I had one path.

But it just intuitively hasn't been what's been true for me.

So I'm curious how you think about that or experience that.

Yeah,

That's,

And that was my,

You know,

I can totally relate to that.

Because I heard someone saying that.

And I think it was more of from a critical and judgmental point of view.

And someone was saying,

Okay,

Who's your guru?

And I did not have an answer to that.

And they say,

Oh,

You don't have a guru.

So how did you like,

You know,

How are you?

How are you meditation teacher?

And then I reflected on this a lot.

And I came to realize that the guru might not be and I think this is something someone said,

I don't remember who said it.

But it was beautiful that the guru doesn't need to be in a physical form.

You know,

The guru can,

I think it was Baba Ramdas himself,

He said that,

I think so,

That he doesn't need to be in a physical form,

It can be,

It can be your own intuition,

It can be an entity,

It can be,

You know,

It can be some book,

You know,

It can be some information that comes from somewhere.

So I think I,

My path,

You know,

In that sense,

My path is similar to yours,

Because,

For me,

I keep jumping from one thing to another.

But if I have to talk about a guru,

I would say it is more of,

You know,

I don't want to give a label,

Because you know,

Labels are just labels,

But something like my higher self or my intuition,

Or some entity that has been guiding me not in a physical form,

But in a form of knowing that comes from within me.

And that intuition has guided me in my life.

And that's,

If I have to say,

Who's my guru,

That's my guru.

And apart from that,

A lot of learnings from many other teachers,

You know,

Be it,

Be it as you mentioned,

Ramana Maharshi,

Nisargadatta Maharaj,

Osho,

Buddha,

Lao Tzu,

Many of these teachers,

They have been gurus.

So I believe that it's not necessary that there is one fixed guru,

But it can be anything.

Yeah.

So I was looking at your bio in on your website,

And just digging into learning more about you.

And you had mentioned that at one point,

You were in a mind prison and stuck in rigid religious beliefs.

And I guess I'd love to hear just take us back to what that was like.

And yeah,

We'll go from there.

Yeah,

Sure.

I'm glad you asked that.

Because that's a very integral part of my journey.

And so earlier,

I was,

I was a practicing Muslim.

And I was practicing Islam.

And if you would have met me 15 years ago,

I was a totally different person.

And rigid,

You know,

When I say mind prison,

I mean that there was this narrow and rigid mindset that only this is true.

And nothing else is true.

And I think this is what the result of blind faith is,

Where we think that only only my religion or only my,

You know,

What I'm practicing is the right thing.

Rest else is nonsense.

So that was my mindset.

And it was an orthodox conservative mindset.

And I think this is true with a lot of people in the world today,

Where we get attached to one particular religion or practice or guide or you know,

Whatever that is.

And we think that that is only true.

That is the only way to approach God or enlightenment or whatever that is.

So that was my rigid mindset.

But what,

What again transformed what helped it transform was,

You know,

This guru that I talked about my intuition,

Or some entity that was guiding me,

Which which made me started asking questions.

Okay,

You know,

Okay,

What is this religion about?

Why do I have a blind faith in that?

Now,

The tradition that I was following,

You know,

It is believed in that tradition that only these people who belong to this tradition will go to heaven,

Best everyone will go to hell.

So now seems to be the case in some other religions,

Too.

Yeah,

Yeah,

Exactly.

So now I go to you know,

For the first time.

So since my childhood,

I was living in a community,

Disclosed community.

But for the first time,

I went out of this community.

And I started living with people from other communities when and that was,

You know,

When I was studying in a university in a different city in India.

And these people from other religions,

They were such nice people.

And I started asking,

Like,

Why is it that I will go to heaven and they will go to hell,

They are even better than me.

Like this doesn't make sense that just because accidentally they are born into another religion,

They'll go to hell.

It doesn't make sense.

So then I started inquiring.

And you know,

I started getting to the history of religions that how did religions form.

And I came to realize that,

You know,

This is manmade stuff,

Like this is just made up by someone.

And people are just believing in that without even questioning the dogmatic beliefs.

So that's where my journey started.

And that's where when I started transforming.

And,

You know,

I yeah,

I'm here today with that questioning and not just believing things,

You know,

At the face of it,

Not having blind faith,

But quite to question everything.

So it sounds like it was a process rather than was there like a vivid awakening moment,

And maybe that came later,

Or has come later in your own practices,

But was there like an aha or epiphany come to Jesus moment to use another phrase in that way?

Or was it like a slow just,

Oh,

Wow.

Yeah,

That doesn't really make sense anymore.

Yeah,

Yeah,

It was a slow process.

I don't remember any like one specific moment when that happened,

Which happens for a lot of people.

But it was a slow process.

So,

You know,

My intuition or higher self or whatever this entity is,

It will guide me to ask like,

Be asked questions.

So for example,

If I'm saying,

Okay,

I believe in this,

You know,

I believe,

For example,

Meditation is the only way,

You know,

And it is the only path.

So it will tell me question that,

You know,

This is the voice I listened to my head,

In my head question that.

And I like,

Oh,

Yeah,

I think I should question this idea as well.

So that way,

By questioning,

Questioning,

Questioning,

You know,

It,

I felt that a lot of those rigid beliefs transformed.

But if I have to talk about one moment,

It was while when I started meditating,

And I was,

I remember I was doing a chakra practice.

And suddenly,

I had an out of body experience.

So I was not in my body anymore.

I was floating around in the room.

And that was the moment where it was like,

Yeah,

I'm just you know,

It's not I'm not the body only I'm much more than that.

And maybe,

You know,

It's the body is something I have.

And I'm not the body.

But it is something I'm like,

Like clothes that I'm wearing.

But I'm much more than that.

I think that was the moment which was more experiential in that,

You know,

Epiphany.

You have a story of similar to mine in a sense of leaving a more traditional job,

And pursuing your own path.

And in the lieu of this podcast,

Maybe you might even say pursuing life more purposely,

And we can talk,

I want to talk about purpose in a second.

But I'd love to hear about where you were at in your life in this job after you started questioning and when was the when was the decision to say,

Okay,

I want to give this back and kind of take a step forward.

So I was working as a marketing,

I was working in marketing for a smartphone company.

And it was a pretty hectic job,

Because we were like launching,

It was a new company.

And we were launching smartphones in,

You know,

Different countries.

So what happened was that and,

You know,

My boss was,

You know,

As many bosses are after my life,

And calling me up at 12 in the night and telling me to make a presentation by morning and that kind of stuff.

In India,

We have like,

You know,

I think there are no labor laws,

People don't follow them.

So people just,

You know,

There is a lot of like,

Stress and anxiety that runs through the corporates.

So I started experiencing this stress and anxiety.

And I remember that I was,

You know,

Driving my car to the office.

And I was having this strong anxiety and my heart was beating.

And I was diagnosed with high blood pressure at that time.

And I stopped the car,

I you know,

I couldn't drive because I thought I might get a heart attack.

And I stopped the car.

And I just looked at myself in the in the in the mirror.

And I thought that,

You know,

What have what have I become?

You know,

I was such a,

Like joyful,

And I was such a peaceful person,

And everything was fine.

What has happened to me,

My life has changed just after working for a few years in the corporate.

And then I decided that I can't go on like this,

Like evil,

If,

If I continue,

I will die.

So it's better that I just leave.

So that was the moment I decided to like,

Give up,

You know,

My job,

I resigned.

And I gave up my job.

Then I started I thought that,

Okay,

What do I do now?

I don't have a job.

So I started was it that day,

Like that day?

You're like,

Screw this?

Yeah,

Yeah,

I didn't resign exactly that day.

But that day,

I decided and in a few,

I think,

In a few months,

I decided and by in four months,

I was out of the company.

Yeah.

And then I started a few businesses because I didn't know what to do.

And then I realized that this is not for me.

It was a retail business,

I realized that this is not for me.

And then to heal my like blood pressure,

I went to the Himalayas in India.

And I learned I learned meditation there.

Because everyone was saying that if you want to heal yourself,

Do meditation.

And after starting meditation,

In six months,

My blood pressure was gone.

I was back to my homeostasis.

And I thought that this is so wonderful.

I decided to be a meditation teacher.

Beautiful.

And then how long after that do you leave India and find insight timer?

Because if me and you,

I would say we,

In many ways,

Caught a break with insight timer and have supported and some of you probably are listening to this right now finding us or listening to our meditations on insight timer.

So yeah,

When did that come?

Because I know how much of an opening it's been in my life.

It happened,

I think,

When I started meditating,

I realized that,

You know,

It comes naturally to me,

In the sense that I'm able to meditate,

It's not difficult.

And I'm able to sit for long hours,

And I'm able to go deep.

Now,

There was this guy,

Where I was getting trained in meditation,

There was this guy in the institute who was a vocalist before,

And he,

He became a meditation teacher.

So I saw that how he was using his voice,

Because he was a vocalist.

He was using his voice to create meditations that were very soothing to the ears,

Like he would exactly know when to modulate his voice.

You know,

For example,

If you are and because you are a meditation teacher,

You would know that,

That when there is a pause,

And after the pause,

When you start saying something,

You do it in a very soft manner so that,

You know,

The the meditation practitioner is not shocked by your voice.

So I learned all those techniques from him just by observing him.

And I thought that let's try it out.

Because,

You know,

I was inspired,

He's a vocalist,

And I was a vocalist at that time.

So let's maybe try it out.

Let's create a meditation.

So just after doing one training,

That was for like 15 days or something,

I decided to create a meditation.

And I created a meditation and I because I was using Insight Timer for one year by,

You know,

At that time,

And I decided to like put the meditation on Insight Timer.

And I forgot about that.

And then I after three months,

I thought,

Okay,

Let's see what happened to that meditation.

And I open Insight Timer and I see I have,

You know,

These many followers 10,

000 plays on the meditation.

I thought,

Wow,

This is wonderful.

So so then I started creating more and more.

And that's how my journey began.

What about you?

Yeah,

I love it.

Similar in some sense,

I actually have no idea how I found it.

I think I was using it like the timer part.

And then in 2016,

In the summer,

I had this one of those synchronicities where I had a friend who had like,

Like a pack of,

Of a zoom recorder,

And a mic,

And was like,

Selling it.

And he gave me and I bought it from him.

And I'm like,

Maybe I'll just record something.

And I recorded something.

And it was a meditation on self love.

What's funny is it was my first meditation that's out there.

And it's still featured,

Like in one part of the app right now,

And has no editing.

It's just,

You know,

It goes to show like,

Whatever you're doing,

Just start recording it,

Like forget the editing,

Forget like just get it out there.

Because for the most part,

It doesn't have to be perfect.

You don't have to have the best mic,

You don't have to have the best camera,

Just start.

And,

And that's still a popular meditation.

It was my first ever in 2016.

So I put it on there.

I remember that first day,

It has 2000 plays.

What the heck?

What is this thing?

And I had,

I don't think I didn't miss the boat by any means.

But I mean,

This was in October 2016.

And,

And,

You know,

Meditations were staying up there for like days on the front page.

And I always joke that I would,

I could have taken advantage more,

But everything was perfect.

And you know,

Everything unfolded perfectly.

So,

So yeah.

Yeah,

I think inside timer has been a has been a great blessing,

Because I think it is.

It was one of the few,

Although there were many meditation apps by then,

You know,

Headspace and calm and all these.

But inside timer,

You know,

I think it was one of the first platforms to make it like a marketplace,

You know,

Where many teachers can come and share their stuff freely without any like process of application or,

You know,

And that privilege to only some people to create meditations.

So I think it has been a great blessing in that sense.

And yes,

My my career in meditation,

I think inside timer has a great role to play in that.

Speaking of inside timer,

So I'm looking at your upcoming live classes.

This is something I want to talk to you about.

So your upcoming live classes are tomorrow,

The 10 boomies of the Buddha and look up what boomies where I've never heard that word before.

Saturday,

Your past lives.

Next,

Developing quantum consciousness.

Next,

The Buddha's Dhammapada.

Time traveling to your child self,

The ego and rebirth,

The death and rebirth of the ego,

Pineal gland activation,

Becoming magical with a K and shadow work.

So I hope people can understand how different and interesting all of those topics are.

And I think that's a gift,

At least that I see is your ability to teach and talk about and share all these different topics.

And so I'd love to hear one,

How do you pick the topics you share about?

And and how do you know so much?

And how are you able to do like three of these a week?

Like I would need like a month to prepare for like one of these.

So yeah,

How do you how do you do it?

Yeah.

So I think live session is something I've enjoyed the most on inside timer.

And how I do that is,

So usually it is,

Whatever topics I'm putting out on inside timer,

They are a reflection of what's going on in my mind.

And you got a lot going on.

Yeah,

Yeah.

So I'm like,

You know,

For example,

If I have an upcoming life on a live on developing quantum consciousness,

So it is about,

You know,

Merging quantum physics with spirituality.

So I created that live just because a few days ago,

I read an article,

You know,

That delay,

The latest Nobel Prize in physics is given to people who have proved kind of proved that,

You know,

Quantum entanglement is true,

Which which,

Which makes us question reality that you know,

What is the nature of reality.

So it is kind of a spiritual concept.

And I don't want to go deep into that,

Because it will take another podcast to do that.

Yeah,

But it is something I became really curious about.

And what I do is,

Then I reflect on that I would like take an hour to just go for a walk and reflect on that topic.

And writing things down?

Are you just it's all just no,

It's all it's all inside.

And then I feel okay,

You know,

Maybe this is worthy of our discussion.

I so first,

I do the reflection by myself.

And then I think that it's worthy of a discussion with people on inside timer.

So as I do the session,

I,

It's not that,

You know,

I have a fixed structure.

Earlier,

I used to have a fixed structure.

So for example,

I would go for a walk,

You know,

I would I would reflect on it,

And there are five points will come up,

Okay,

You know,

I have to discuss these five points,

I have to discuss quantum entanglement,

I have to discuss double slit experiment,

I have to discuss all these things.

So,

But now what I do is,

I say,

Okay,

Let's,

I have reflected on this,

Let's see what discussion I have with the people on inside timer.

So I will start the session.

And people will,

You know,

Start commenting in the chat.

And I will get prompts from there.

And based on those prompts,

I will take the discussion forward.

So it's more like having a discussion with,

You know,

Friends in the room,

That you kind of build up and improvise on that.

And that way,

I have realized that,

You know,

It becomes more natural,

Then I don't have to,

Like,

Think of a script or,

You know,

Think of what I have to say.

But it is more of coming from a natural place.

And it's like a discussion,

The way we are having right now.

Beautiful sounds like a curiosity and an exploration,

Which is Yeah,

Yeah,

Seems to be working incredibly well,

Like on all those lives,

There's already hundreds of people signed up to all of them.

So you're doing a great thing.

So yeah,

Really deeply admire that.

Thank you.

So I watched a video of yours around a bunch of videos of yours preparing for this.

But in the nature of awakening to purpose,

And this topic of purpose,

I think it's funny,

As I was watching some of your videos,

I was like,

I've been talking about this too.

In some ways,

It feels like a lot of similar things.

And I'd love to hear what people how you think people get wrong around the word purpose,

The topic of finding their purpose.

And I know you had a question that is better to ask the video actually cut off before I heard the question.

So I'll just ask him here.

So yeah,

Tell us talk to us a little bit about how you look at purpose.

Yeah,

I think purpose in itself is a beautiful thing.

And but what what people get wrong about that,

In my opinion,

Is that people think that it is something of the future.

And what then happens is that that future never arrives,

Right?

Because future doesn't arrive,

What arises the present moment always.

So when I say that,

Okay,

You know,

I need to figure out my purpose,

What is my purpose,

Then what what what I'm actually doing is,

I'm saying that,

You know,

What,

What will I do in the future,

Basically,

I'm not focused on this moment,

What's happening right now,

I'm in my head,

You know,

Thinking about the future,

Not here right now.

So the question,

Then we can put differently is,

What do I feel like doing right now,

In this moment?

What do I feel like doing right now in this moment?

And when I keep asking this question,

Moment to moment,

Automatically,

I will,

My purpose will be fulfilled.

Because,

You know,

I will be coming from a more authentic place,

I will be,

You know,

Listening to my intuition and my feeling,

For example,

You know,

If I,

Like right now,

We are doing the podcast,

So definitely,

I can't say like,

Right now,

I feel like going out because you have to end the podcast.

But let's say after the podcast,

I asked this question to myself,

Okay,

What do I feel like doing right now?

You know,

Maybe then the answer is,

Okay,

Let's pick up this book,

And let's read it.

Now,

It might not seem that this is this is fulfilling,

By the way,

I put,

I picked up Charles book.

And yeah,

I think we both are reading this,

Right?

Like Charles Feeley.

Yes,

I do nothing.

Yeah.

So let's say I decide to read that.

And,

You know,

It might seem that it's not fulfilling my purpose,

Because I need to do something else,

I have an idea in my head.

But maybe this is the most important thing,

Maybe I'll read something in this book,

That will make me,

You know,

More aligned with my purpose.

So I feel that the problem is that we make it a future oriented question,

Versus asking that,

What do I feel like doing right now.

And when we keep asking this,

We get into a state of flow and very present.

And automatically,

What we,

You know,

Our purpose is fulfilled,

Then I love this.

And I'm taking this in for myself.

And a couple questions come up,

Because there's a part of me that's like,

Yes,

I need to be more in that flow and less structured of these are the things I want to get done today.

And what would you say to a person that says that they asked themselves this question?

And their answer is,

Feel like hanging on the couch and eating popcorn and watching,

You know,

Watching Netflix?

What do you say to because I can imagine hearing someone's rebuttal,

Saying that of,

Well,

What if you just feel like doing whatever you feel like,

Then maybe you never actually get anything done or actually find your purpose?

How do you answer that?

Yeah,

It's a very valid question.

And I would say to that,

Whatever you feel like doing,

Even if you feel like eating popcorn,

Or watching Netflix,

Do it totally.

What will happen is that when you do it totally,

You are very conscious of it.

Right?

And if you are conscious,

We'll see that this is not maybe aligned with my purpose,

And we'll start doing something else.

But the very act of resisting that which I want to do in this moment,

You know,

If I,

If I want to watch Netflix,

And if I'm resisting that,

It will create a kind of a neurosis in my head,

Where I'm always in a mind conflict,

You know,

What should I do?

What shouldn't I do?

But if I'm allowing myself to fully immerse myself in watching Netflix,

Then at some point of time,

I will be like,

You know,

What am I doing?

I'm wasting my time in a list.

So the whole idea is whatever you do,

When you do it totally and consciously,

Automatically,

You will you will get to your purpose.

So rather than resisting that fully immersed in that,

That's my philosophy.

Well,

It shows in the level of content and what you put out if this is the route you're following,

Because I am fascinated discussing the creative process.

And I tend to fall sometimes into the camp of a,

I don't know if you've read the War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

But in the creative mindset of show up,

And inspiration will come,

Right?

I don't feel like writing today.

But this is my job.

It's also a Jerry Seinfeld comedian writing of that people don't know the story,

Jerry Seinfeld,

One day,

He was walking down the street,

And he saw that there were,

He was developing his career in LA,

He just moved to LA,

And he was going in doing clubs at night.

And he was during the day looking at people that were construction workers.

And in this moment,

He had this like,

Aha,

Where he realized that those people had to do that work.

They were forced to do that labor.

And there he was this comedian with all his time on his hand.

And he had something flip off that if he wanted to be a professional,

That he needed to have the discipline of these guys doing much harder work than him to show up and,

And his thing was only right for an hour a day and actually show up with that discipline.

So I love both like I think I need probably more of what your philosophy is.

So I guess the question is,

For me from that is how do you set up your days?

Like,

Do you have an idea of what you want to get done this week or today?

I know you just finished a course that you are working on?

Or do you wake up and say,

What do I want to do today?

Is you have a like a routine that you follow?

Or is it so just following that flow?

Yeah,

It's a bit of both,

But more of flow,

I would say.

Like some things are scheduled,

Like some things you just can't not schedule,

Right?

For example,

Our meeting here today,

It is scheduled and it is,

It is supposed to happen.

Like I cannot say,

Oh,

You know,

Lou,

I think let's just watch Netflix and not do the podcast.

I totally feel like this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So some things are good to be scheduled because,

You know,

And especially when it comes to relationships,

Because if I feel like doing something else and the other feel like person,

You know,

For example,

In this case,

If you,

If I feel like doing the podcast and let's say,

You don't feel like doing the podcast today,

Then that is something which can,

Which can be a mismatch.

And,

You know,

I don't know then when we will find that day when we both will feel like doing the podcast.

So I feel that some things are good to be scheduled,

Which,

And these meetings for me,

These meetings are scheduled.

My sessions with clients are scheduled.

All these things are scheduled.

My life sessions are inside,

Inside timer are scheduled,

But most of the rest,

I feel,

You know,

I keep it free.

Like,

So I would wake up in the morning and let's say,

I don't have a session.

I would ask myself,

Okay,

What do I feel like doing right now?

Sometimes my intuition will say,

Okay,

You know,

Open up a book or,

You know,

Work on this or go out for a walk.

So I just follow that.

And what I've come to realize Lou is that when I listen to my heart and when I listen to my intuition,

I do that thing with more passion,

You know,

Versus when I have this idea that I have to do this,

It becomes more of a task and effort.

But when I go with my intuition and follow my heart,

That,

Okay,

I just want to,

You know,

I feel like doing this.

I do it very well.

Whatever that is,

Even if it is eating popcorn,

I eat popcorn,

Like anything,

You know,

Then I'm the best at it's a,

It's a ego based thing,

But I would say I'm the best at eating popcorn.

Now I'm doing it with full conviction.

So the idea is that basically,

Yeah,

That's the thing that I feel I'm more passionate about doing something when I just follow my heart and my intuition and go with what I'm hearing is there's,

There's a presence,

There's an energy,

There's a fullness with,

In some sense,

That makes it kind of a meditation in a way of fully letting yourself be in the experience that you're having,

Rather than having the resistance of I have to do this versus I want to do something else.

Yeah.

If you don't mind,

Can I ask you a question?

Yeah,

Please.

What,

What is what is it for you?

How would you approach?

Like,

How do you approach your day?

So when I heard you explaining that moment,

I feel like I give myself permission to do that on weekends,

Like on weekends,

I'll wake up,

And it'll be Yeah,

What feels I want to go for a run?

Do I want to work out?

Do I want to?

Do I want to finish something I've been working on?

Do I want to just read?

And for whatever reason,

I only feel like I have that permission on a weekend.

But for whatever reason,

Even though I have my own schedule,

I can do whatever I want.

I have my own business and I'm supported and I feel enoughness and so I don't feel the pressure.

But for whatever reason,

I don't know if it's where I live.

I don't know if it's just the routine and the conditioning that I've been in that if it's a Wednesday at 1030 am,

I can't be on the couch reading a book,

Even if that book might actually be helpful to something that I'm looking to or researching or whatnot.

So for me,

The way I approach it is I'm pretty structured in a morning routine.

I tend to work out now in the morning,

Which is a new thing I meditate at,

At night.

Now it's all been kind of flip flop of my routine,

But it's been great.

I'll journal,

I'll read for about 30 minutes and then I try and chunk out the beginning parts of my day to the most important things,

The things that are really moving the needle,

Whether that's writing my newsletter,

Whether that's working on a presentation I have coming up at a school,

The things that are like the most important thing,

Depending on if I have clients,

Clients,

That's a different energy.

And if I have a day where I'm coaching,

I try and read something on coaching,

Trying to get myself in that energy to hold space and holding space for people is a different sort of energy.

That's a different kind of,

So different than a creative energy.

And that I try and batch those as much as I can,

Just so I can really be in that flow.

And obviously with that,

You have to,

You have to be there to serve whether you feel like it or not.

So you have to be able to shift your state in that way.

So yeah,

Just to sum that up,

It's more of the,

What's most important to my,

I don't say I have goals,

But I have a vision and yes,

I recognize it's future focused,

But I,

And then,

But when you talk about what you're saying,

I get inspired because I remember the times when I did that and how more alive I feel,

How actually more connected I feel when I'm really able to tap into that.

And then in those moments,

That's where the synchronicity happens.

That's where this is the exact next thing.

And that's what all the wise teachers are telling us is that get to that point and then life happens,

Right?

Life unfolds itself.

So.

Yeah.

It might not be the most productive way.

And,

But,

But what I feel is that it is definitely the happiest way in the sense that,

You know,

It becomes a trade off between being productive.

Like for example,

What you're defining the structure,

It will definitely,

And I'm not denying that fact,

It will definitely need to lead to more productivity,

More efficiency.

But the question then is that how is my,

Like,

What do I,

What do I prefer more?

Do I prefer an internal state of low and just doing what I feel like doing,

Which,

Which can give me more happiness versus that external achievement of,

You know,

Getting something.

So I think it's a trade off and there is no right or wrong here.

Like there is no judgment here.

If someone wants to be more productive and produce more,

That's,

That's their journey.

But if,

If,

You know,

I think for me,

I prefer,

I think I prefer that for me,

It's very important to be in a state of happiness and joy and peace while you're doing that work.

So I will make sure that I only do those things which I really feel like doing in those moments.

So,

Yeah.

I'm going to try this out.

I'm,

I don't know if you're familiar at all with the Enneagram personality typing,

But I'm an Enneagram three,

Which if you're not familiar with it is someone who really values achievement and getting his worth through that.

So it's been super helpful in just acknowledging that.

And also I'm aware of the shadow and the delusions that I can get tripped up in.

So you're definitely inspiring me today with hearing a little bit about your schedule.

And it can be a bit of both,

Right?

We can always have those elements of when we want to be more productive versus when we want to just go with the flow.

I think it can all be also be a very balanced approach because if you are that personality type,

Then it definitely will be quite dramatic or difficult to suddenly go to a change and be on the opposite end and be totally flowy because then we are two different personality types.

But I think we both can maybe bring a little bit elements of each other into our lives.

And I think I do feel like I need to bring a little bit more structure to my life.

And maybe you can,

You know,

If you feel like it,

Bring more flow to your life.

And that way it's a more balanced approach where we are in the middle versus going to any extreme of both.

So I want to share a quote that I found that you shared.

The world outside is a mirror that reflects my consciousness.

A chaotic world reflects a chaotic mind,

Whereas a peaceful world reflects a peaceful mind.

Now,

I know a lot of wise teachers.

I think there's a Joseph Campbell quote explaining how when you talk about fixing the world,

You're barking up the wrong tree.

The world is a mess.

It's always been a mess.

And it's perfect.

Your job is not to fix the world.

Your job is to fix yourself.

And so I'd just be curious because it's something to hold.

I know people have a difficult time holding this with all the suffering or the injustices or the challenges or the world feels like it's burning down.

What does,

But in maybe your world or my world,

Maybe it's,

I'm feeling peaceful and fine.

And so how do you navigate what the world is putting in and what you see and what feels like it needs to be changed versus how one lives one life?

And I'm imagining maybe karma comes into this,

But yeah,

That's a kind of a broad question,

But I'm curious how you might navigate that.

Yeah,

I think it's a very good question because,

And I did get a lot of questions after I put up that code because some people did tell me that,

Oh,

That's not the case because you can live in a war zone,

But still be peaceful.

And what I actually mean by that,

I don't mean that if I'm peaceful from within,

Then I will have fairies and angels around me.

I don't mean that.

What I mean to say is that our perception of the way we look at the world changes.

So even if it is like,

Let's say I'm in a situation,

Which is a very chaotic situation outside of myself,

But I'm peaceful from within.

For me,

I will embrace that chaos.

Like I will not resist that chaos.

For example,

If I'm in a war zone and I have reached such a level that I've been able to maintain that inner peace,

For example,

A monk sitting in a war zone,

Something like that.

Now,

It's not that,

You know,

This quote might not seem true in that case because the monk is peaceful,

But there is war outside,

But it's about the worldview of the monk.

Because I believe that each one of us has a different worldview.

Now,

Someone in that war zone will see this world as a dark place,

Right?

That it is like we are living in a dystopia right now.

That will be how the world will seem to be a very dark place.

But maybe for that monk who is sitting there,

It will fit in.

He will say that,

Oh,

This is a part of the journey.

This war is actually very necessary for the peace to follow.

For example,

When Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened,

Although it was the most horrific incident for humanity,

But it led to a lot of peace treaties due to which,

You know,

Thankfully we did not have till now,

And hopefully we will not have,

But till now we did not have nuclear wars.

So then that monk would see this as a,

You know,

As a season,

Different seasons of life.

And he will see that it's okay for our times for us to have a challenging world outside,

Because only through challenges,

We can know the value of,

You know,

Joy and peace.

So that's what I mean,

I mean by the quote.

You have a few courses that I want to discuss and hear from you,

Because again,

You have unique takes and unique courses.

And one that sticks out is your somewhat more recent course on past lives.

And I'm really curious.

I'm super curious about them.

But for whatever reason,

There's a part of me that's like,

Yeah,

That's cool to figure it out.

But how does it help me now?

And so I'm imagining this is a question maybe you've gotten before,

Or you maybe you answered too.

So I'd love to hear two parts of this question.

What are the past lives you've connected with for yourself?

And how have they informed you in this lifetime?

Yeah.

So my I think my first past life experience was I went for a past life regression.

You know,

I was working at a meditation center in New Delhi.

It was called Zorba the Buddha.

And the benefit we had there was that all the programs for the employees were at 50% discount.

So,

You know,

I thought,

Like,

Let's take advantage of this opportunity.

So there was this past life regressionist who came there and I did a first my friend did a session.

So I will answer your question,

You know,

In my friend's story that he used to have this severe abdominal pain.

And he had been to every doctor,

He has tried every modality,

Nothing healed him and his abdominal pain would stay.

And then he did this one session with this past life regressionist and he remembered a lifetime in which he was and it was a recent lifetime where he was stabbed multiple times,

You know,

In his in his stomach by another tribe and he was tied to a tree and he was stabbed multiple times.

And the past life regressionist did some healing with him and cleared that energy.

And when he came out of the session,

His pain was gone.

And he never got that.

I talked to him after many years and he did not have that pain.

So that's one benefit.

It heals a lot of our issues.

So my,

You know,

My past life experiences include and I did a session with him.

And then I started doing past life meditation.

So I started like experimenting,

Okay,

Now,

Why do I need to go to a past life regressionist?

Let's try it out by myself.

So I then remembered a lot of time and a lot of my issues were healed,

Actually,

Because I had this like severe claustrophobia since my childhood,

And I did not understand where does it come from.

And then in this lifetime,

I remembered as I was doing this past life practice,

I remembered that,

You know,

I don't know if this is like true or my mind was making it up.

But it was very healing to me that I saw this lifetime where I was,

You know,

I was a leader of a tribe.

And there was an attack,

You know,

Something like the Avatar story,

That there was an attack from an extraterrestrial species.

And we were forced to go underground.

And because we had to go underground,

We that forcing was,

You know,

Causing us a lot of like claustrophobia,

Because we were underground in these tunnels,

And we did not get good air,

And we could not come up to the surface because of this species.

And that's where my classroom now when I remember that lifetime,

And when I you know,

I did some healing around it,

It reduced to a great level,

My claustrophobia.

So that's what happens that you,

You know,

You heal yourself.

And then there are a lot of benefits other you realize where your talents come from,

For example,

You know,

The question is,

Why are some?

Why are there child prodigies?

Like,

Why are there people who are so good at things?

Shamans say that,

You know,

What comes naturally to you is something you have practiced over many lifetimes,

Actually.

And I saw that,

You know,

I had this natural thing for music.

And I could understand music since my childhood,

The way I never learned music,

But I had a good understanding of music.

And I was a vocalist.

So I saw this past life in which I was a,

You know,

It was like,

I was in a university,

Something like Hogwarts.

And I was this like,

Toy character wearing a black robe.

And I go to this classroom,

And there is this teacher teaching music.

And in that world,

Music was actually a physical thing,

Like you could touch it,

You know,

And you could see it,

And I could see the notes flowing around.

And I could see,

You know,

Music as an energy moving around the room.

And I realized that in this lifetime,

I was a musician,

I learned music,

And I was a musician.

So maybe that's where my musical talents come from.

So,

You know,

That's what the answer is that,

And I have had,

Like,

Remembered many other,

Like,

I think I remember somewhere around 10 to 12 lifetimes.

And I don't claim that they're like,

True,

Or,

You know,

I know for sure that they are true.

But definitely,

They have led to some transformation,

When I remember that.

I think that's the biggest key to anyone who might be listening to this,

And maybe has a skepticism towards past life of whether it's true,

Whether Sakyab's mind or any of our mind is making it up,

But we have an intuitive sense that it might be,

If it's helping us,

Why not?

Why not try it out?

Why not explore?

And that makes total sense when you explain that story for things that we don't even realize,

Which takes,

Like,

Going to therapy to figure that out to a whole nother level.

It's like,

I can't even connect with the,

It didn't even happen in my lifetime.

It's a tough one.

So maybe it's an avenue for people who have been doing some healing work and can't find the root,

Can't figure it out.

With your friend,

Was it like,

Once he realized that,

Because I'm imagining,

Was it the awareness of it that was able to heal it?

Or in the awareness,

Is there almost like an energetic release of it?

Like,

Did he more specifically work with it?

And maybe you don't know.

I don't exactly know what the therapist did with him.

But I think awareness is a key role here,

Because when we become aware of the root of our problems,

They have a like an automatic effect,

They start healing by themselves.

And there's a saying that where your awareness goes,

The energy flows.

So maybe when once he became aware of,

Like the fact that yes,

He was stabbed,

That trauma,

Or that was inside him,

It released itself,

Because that trauma was just to make him aware,

Okay,

This happened to you.

And when he became aware of that,

Something happened,

Which,

You know,

The energy released,

I don't exactly know what the therapist,

What process he followed.

But I think I feel that awareness is key here.

What was that the case for you for the being in the cave and blanking on the word being claustrophobic?

Yeah,

Yeah,

It was.

And because,

You know,

When I became aware of that,

That I have lived underground.

So then I started thinking,

You know,

It changed my mind,

Because earlier,

I was like,

Scared to even step into an elevator.

And now when when I would go to an elevator,

I would say,

Oh,

I have lived underground.

What is this elevator?

You know,

This is nothing.

So that way,

Your mind shifts and,

And you know,

You that that phobia reduced to a great level.

Great.

Timeless manifestation.

Another course you have tell us the difference between manifestation and timeless manifestation.

So the idea behind creating this course is that the misconception again,

Which we have,

Although you know,

I feel that manifestation is a wonderful field,

Field and kudos to all those people who are helping others in manifesting a wonderful life.

But I feel that and I feel that there is a there is also a misconception,

Which I also followed this misconception for a long time,

Which I in which I thought that manifestation is something about the future.

You know,

It is it is time oriented.

And it is something that I have to wait for,

You know,

The idea that okay,

Keep doing keep doing affirmations,

Visualization,

That some point of time in future,

Your manifestation will arrive.

What I realized in the journey in my journey is that manifestation is not about waiting for external things.

It's about being what you want to become right now in this moment.

And that's why it's timeless.

It doesn't require you time to wait for things,

You can manifest your internal being right now.

So in this course,

I'll give I'll give away a little bit that I talked about two things,

Internal manifestation and external manifestation.

If we are focused on the external manifestation,

Then,

You know,

We will,

We will keep waiting,

It will be a time thing,

When we will feel also fear around it and lack around it,

Like,

I don't have that yet,

Or,

You know,

I might not come and all those feelings.

But then there is an internal manifestation,

Which I focus on in this course that forget about what's happening outside.

If you right now in this moment become abundant inside,

Automatically,

Because you know,

And that quote comes into picture that the world outside is a mirror,

Automatically,

It will be reflected in your world.

So you right now,

Without any time delay,

Shift yourself in this very moment into a state of abundance.

And automatically,

It will start happening,

Becoming what you want to become right now without any time delay.

So that's the idea.

Love it.

Does or do you have any suggestion if someone comes to you,

This is a topic that I'd like to talk about in,

In line,

I think of what we're talking about,

Specifically with manifestation,

But also in the topic of purpose,

Which we mentioned,

But if someone wants to start sharing their gifts,

Or finding their gifts,

And yeah,

Whatever their gifts might be,

How might you?

How might what's the first directive?

Or what's the first question you might ask that person?

And I'll give you some time to think about that.

Because I see a gift that I've already mentioned a gift in you that you're able to consume,

And reflect on these concepts and,

And bring them out into the world in a way that is,

Is,

Is felt that is embodied.

And I see that as a gift in you.

So yeah,

How might someone find their their gifts?

I think it brings me back to the same point.

When we when we talk about finding gifts,

It again becomes a it again becomes a future oriented thing.

You know,

It becomes a quest.

And that quest is never ending.

I like the quest in case you haven't.

Yeah.

So for me,

It is what again,

Again,

The same question,

You know,

What do I feel like doing right now?

And what I feel that we will automatically discover that.

So if I if I feel like doing,

You know,

If I feel like,

Let's say,

You know,

Writing something right now,

So I'm writing,

Writing,

And then I then tomorrow,

You know,

Then tomorrow,

I again,

Ask this question,

Okay,

What I feel like doing right now.

And then again,

I'm writing,

Writing,

I will figure out in the process that writing is my gift,

Or writing is something I really want to do.

So I think,

You know,

This,

I would,

I would give the same answer to this question as well,

That it's all about staying in the moment,

The more we stay in the moment,

And more we stay connected to our intuition,

It,

You know,

It automatically reveals itself.

So we don't have to like,

Find it somewhere in the future,

It,

The more we,

It's already there.

And we have to just connect with it,

And be with it,

And it will reveal itself outside as well.

You're reminding me of when I was still working at a company,

I moved into a place by myself,

I was in this time of real self discovery and growth.

And naturally,

Again,

Something about the weekends,

I give myself permission,

I had to go to a job during the week.

So there's that.

But in the weekend,

I felt this,

This just deep went welling up to open my computer and start writing a story that eventually became my book.

At the time,

I wasn't intentionally writing it for my book,

But it just felt like it was what I needed to do.

And in understanding my own gifts,

I look back and understanding,

Yeah,

Understanding myself,

It's like,

Yeah,

I'm meant to work with words in different ways.

I'm meant to work with my voice in different ways and emotion in different ways.

And I look back,

And I was naturally allowing myself to do that when I was in a more relaxed state.

And I think that's also a big thing.

If you are not in a state that can receive information,

If you're have a activated nervous system,

That's what meditation helps to like you said,

Like you started,

You had high blood pressure,

Right?

Probably when you're in those frenetic states,

If you're asking what you wanted to do,

It's probably the reception to that intuition is not as as clear.

So the first step is first,

Clearing your nervous system as much as you can,

So that you have a more spacious being so that you're able to tap in and receive the guidance from a more connected level rather than a heady level.

Yeah,

That's great.

You know,

I'm curious to know what what is your book about?

What did you write?

So the book is called find your truth.

And it depicts my journey,

The three sections of the book are self sabotage,

Self discovery,

And self realization,

Even though I didn't,

Wouldn't say I fully realized the self,

As I look back,

But it had that connotation of the first part of the book is talking about my drinking days,

And some wild stories,

And kind of how I've got tripped up in different ways.

And at the end of each section,

I have a find your truth in my story section,

Where I kind of bring it back to the reader.

And then the self discovery was the shift to,

I've been living like a fucking idiot,

And I need to start making changes.

And the I had a kind of a crazy story in the sense that in seven months,

Things changed so rapidly,

I had this radical transformation.

And then I started meditating.

And not shortly after meditating,

I was just meditating,

Because it was a habit of successful people's in this mastermind group.

That's why I'm super passionate about entrepreneurship,

Because it was actually entrepreneurship that opened me up into spirituality is by getting around people that were not living society's expectations that was so wild to me at the time,

That opened my mind to different possibilities.

And through meditation,

I had a pretty sudden awakening,

Decided to quit drinking on a dime that opened me up.

And then in the next couple days,

I had more of these awakenings.

And when I crazy epiphany to quit my job with no money saved,

No plans,

Just I just jumped burn bridges,

It was a crazy story.

And afterwards,

I'm like,

I need to write this story because it's it was so part of writing it was like,

I need to tell this because for my own sanity,

Like it was cathartic in that way.

And I think in hearing and reading it myself,

It was a beautiful project.

And it still does and connects with people.

I published it in now 2017,

Which is crazy to think about,

But it's still it's still got legs and a lot of my heart in it.

So yeah,

It's a is I'm super proud of that that project.

Yeah,

And I think it's,

It's so good.

Because,

You know,

Anyone who is going through what you have been through,

You know,

Will find it really beneficial.

You know,

Sometimes,

You know,

I feel that I had this idea that,

You know,

I was talking about manifestation.

And I was thinking,

Oh,

My God,

My initial manifestation meditations,

You know,

They are they're not good.

And now I have a different idea about manifestation,

I should delete them and something like that.

And one of my one of my clients,

You know,

Said something beautiful.

And she said that,

You know,

What you were going through at that time,

Someone is going through that right now,

And they need to listen to that.

And that's,

You know,

That will be the guidance for them.

If you talk about timeless manifestation right now to that person,

That person will not understand,

Right.

So that person needs to do your initial,

You know,

Meditations on that manifestation,

Because it's the right message for them.

And now I'm thinking that,

You know,

Although you wrote that book in 2017,

But how relevant it will be for someone who is going through what you have been through previously.

So that's so important to understand our body of work that we do.

And I think if anyone's looking for a guide or a coach or a teacher,

It's easy to get swept up in like the most popular,

The ones that are way above,

And I use that term,

Not in a better or worse way,

But just further on their self growth journey.

It's easy to like,

The best often the best teachers are the ones that aren't 10 steps ahead.

They're the ones that are just one step ahead,

Because they can understand,

They can speak to you,

They remember what it's like to be where you are.

Someone who's,

You know,

Done been doing it for 20 years,

They're,

They're just they don't even remember what it was like to necessarily to be where you're at right now.

So yeah,

That guidance and,

And trusting this is where your own kind of inner guide helps and understanding that,

You know,

Messages.

Yeah,

I look back at things in the book,

Or I look back at things I said,

And it's like,

I wouldn't say it like this again,

Or I have YouTube videos where people say I watched that YouTube video.

And,

And it really helped me.

And I looked at those YouTube videos from like,

2016.

And I was like,

Yelling at the cameras,

Like,

You're like,

Like,

This is insane.

And so that's also,

I mean,

That also goes to our own growth as creators and guides and people that are embodying and sharing what I hope,

You know,

Is helpful to people and in a sense of service.

I think that's what it comes down to when I think of when I think of sharing gifts is,

I would ask this question all the time in the beginning of my journey is,

Is how can I serve?

How can I serve?

How can I serve?

How can I be an instrument of peace?

How can I be?

How can I live?

Thy will,

Not my will,

And really asking and praying in that way has been a big part of at least how I've found that even though that might still be a future focus,

But I still do feel connected to,

Yeah,

Connected to letting life be lived through me.

Yeah,

No,

I think I and I think that's,

We are,

We are very much aligned on that,

Because that has been my journey as well.

You know,

When we think about,

And I think what's beautiful,

The question that you asked,

How can I serve?

When we,

What I've realized is that when we ask this question,

We also transform in the process,

You know,

When we have an intention to serve,

Because earlier I,

At some point of time,

I started judging myself like for asking this question that how can I serve?

Because I thought that,

Oh,

I should first go within myself and,

You know,

Forget about everyone else and just work on myself and then help others.

But now I realize,

No,

That's not the case,

Because this very question that how can I serve?

It is also making me transform and automatically I am also transforming in that process.

I don't have to like first wait for my own self-realization and reach enlightenment and then,

You know,

Go out into the world and serve others.

But my very question,

How can I serve others is also making me grow and evolve and that acceptance of ourselves that we are,

We are also,

Although,

You know,

We have that label of teacher or coach or something,

But we are also evolving along with,

You know,

The people we are serving.

I think that's something important to embrace.

Your,

What you just said gave me chills and reminds me of a saying from A Course in Miracles,

Which for those of you that are not familiar,

A Course in Miracles is a channeled text,

A claim to be channeled by Jesus as the channeler.

So wrap your head around that if that's hard to wrap your head around.

But a lot of good stuff in that book and there's a line,

I just pulled it up here,

That I used to also repeat to myself and it goes to exactly what you're saying of,

Here's the line,

It's in chapter two.

I am here only to be truly helpful.

I am here to represent him who sent me.

I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do because he who sent me will direct me.

I am content to be wherever he wishes,

Knowing he goes there with me.

I will be healed as I let him teach me to heal.

I will be healed as I let him teach me to heal.

And yeah,

This journey brings that out.

I love the,

This journey of,

Let's call it solopreneur,

Spiritual growth,

Business,

Whatever you might be,

Because it really brings out,

At least in my own experience,

My own healing and growth and blind spots,

Which I want to ask you a question.

I don't know if you have some more time,

But I'd love to ask you a question on where you've been tripped up by ego or maybe just failure or defeat.

And I had a recent ego,

I wouldn't say shattering,

But humbling.

And I'd love to,

Yeah,

Hear where that's happened for you,

How that's happened for you.

And if it hasn't happened for you,

I might just say,

Be careful.

It continues to come.

As Father Thomas Keating says,

The spiritual journey is one humiliation after the other.

And so that's often the path.

No,

I think it is a continuous journey.

And it has happened quite a few times.

And I feel that it will keep happening.

And I'm open to being humiliated.

And it happened,

I think,

Mostly when I had this experience.

And I realized,

The problem,

Although it's beautiful work,

But the problem with the nature of what we do is that the way the internet is structured these days,

The followers,

The people praising you and you becoming the center of attention,

If you are an influencer,

I think that fuels the ego.

And that creates a false sense of self,

Which is that somehow,

You know,

I'm great,

Somehow I'm greater than the other,

Or somehow I'm like that.

And I had a very humbling experience.

Once I was working with a shaman.

And when I went for them,

It was a ceremony.

And when I was in the ceremony,

I experienced I experienced this ego,

Although I wasn't aware initially,

But I felt that I started thinking these thoughts that,

Oh,

You know,

I know more than this shaman.

What is the shaman talking about?

And I know more.

And she was talking about some specific,

I don't remember what that subject was.

But I got this,

These thoughts in my head,

Oh,

I know more on this subject.

And now while the ceremony was happening,

And she was doing some energy work.

In that state,

I saw my own ego,

Like I saw my ego being like this hard shell,

Which is not letting things in,

Which is not letting that beautiful knowledge come in into me and wisdom come into me,

And that healing to come into me.

And she came and she did some energy work,

It was as if,

You know,

And I could I could visualize it as an experience where I had this hard shell.

And she had a hammer and she broke that shell with a hammer.

And in that moment,

When she did that energy work,

I suddenly submitted to her like,

You know,

I suddenly I felt this my head bow down.

And my ego melting away that,

You know,

I had this ego that I know more.

But I,

It started melting away.

And I started opening myself to her wisdom.

And in that moment,

I realized what she was sharing was really powerful.

But my ego that I know more was blocking that message,

I could not see the beauty of that message.

But as soon as I surrendered,

I could see that how powerful and that powerful wisdom actually transformed me.

So this,

This ego of,

You know,

This trap,

This ego trap of I know,

Is a big,

Big ego trap.

And that shattering was a humbling experience.

Power,

Sex,

Money,

Typically,

Falls around there to look out for that.

Yeah,

That readily resonated is an I'm special,

Right?

Look how special I am have this many followers as people think are important.

And,

Again,

For an Enneagram three,

It's,

It's hard to,

It's a continual watch.

And as much as we can consciously watch,

It can,

We can get tripped up,

We can,

If,

If,

If the greats get tripped up,

We get tripped up.

And it's important to,

With all awareness,

Stay humble,

And use the word submission,

Which I think in a Western mind has a lot,

A lot more difficult with that word.

I'm curious,

Because of that word,

And I just,

I recently read a book,

Or it's the second time reading this book by Kabir Helminski.

He is a Sufi.

And the book's called living presence,

The essential mindfulness of the essential self or whatnot.

And I just felt like this,

The transmission in this book was so pure and powerful.

And obviously,

Sufism is influenced by Islam.

And I've always had only positive experiences speaking,

Learning about Islam in different contexts.

And so knowing that this was the religion you came out of,

What's your relationship to it?

Now?

Do you still read?

Are you still the do you consider Muhammad a great being and prophet?

And yeah,

I'm just be curious where you're at with that now.

Yeah.

I'm so glad you asked this question.

Because,

You know,

Rarely someone asked me this question.

And I'm really happy to discuss about it.

Because I was again,

I think there are two parts.

There are different ways we approach,

You know,

Any religion or any culture,

Any tradition or any spiritual person.

The problem arises when we make it a dogma.

So I feel that Muhammad was a,

You know,

Spiritual mystic,

The way there are others like Buddha,

You know,

Lao Tzu,

Rumi,

And even today,

There are many mystics.

And the people after him created,

You know,

Made made his teachings or dogma.

And I think the thing with religion is that when a religion is dogmatic,

It is mostly because the teaching the original teachings of the mystic are kind of made like a rule book.

So there is that part to Islam,

Which is I think,

You know,

Which is which is how mostly Muslims in the world follow that again,

You know,

No judgment around that.

I'm not saying that's wrong or something.

It's just that which I don't align with.

And the other part is more of a Sufi path,

You know,

Which is,

And a lot of people say that,

You know,

Sufism is not even Islam.

And how can they say that,

You know,

God is within me,

How can they,

You know,

Neglect the priest.

So basically,

The idea a lot idea in religion and other religions,

As well as that there has to be a priest in between for you to have a connection with God,

The priest will help you to have that.

Now,

What Sufis did with Islam was they removed the priest.

And they said that I have a direct connection with God.

So I think that's really beautiful.

And that's something that I relate to more.

And I don't,

You know,

I am not,

I'm not opposed to religion.

I'm just,

I don't see it as a rule book.

I just want to take everything that's beautiful out of it and leave the rest.

So whatever aligns with me,

I'll take that.

But I will not make it as a like a dogmatic practice.

Thanks for sharing.

I love,

I think it's also the like you talked about before,

Like what is the awareness and presence you're doing something with?

Because I think it is actually a really powerful practice and something that if we practice more gives us that state of humbling,

Right?

The call to prayer in Islam,

To do that five times a day to prostrate to get down and bow just that whole embodied sense of humility.

If you do that with your whole being,

Like that could be the most powerful transformative practice and an act of humility.

But imagining,

I don't know this,

But imagining many Muslims will do that as a rule,

Right?

As like,

I have to do this thing,

Right now it's this time I do this thing rather than with the presence.

Now I'm sure there's many that do it with that full activated presence.

And I think it's something that I've practiced at times,

Right?

Really doing that,

That full prostrate to even lay down,

Not even with your hands down to like lay down flat on the ground,

Like looking forward.

There's a humbling to that,

That I think is helpful.

It is definitely.

And,

You know,

I think it is all about conditional and unconditional love.

Someone who is doing that,

You know,

With pure unconditional love that I love,

You know,

Whatever that is being is Allah,

God,

You know,

Or I just love the spiritual energy and I'm just doing this for that experience versus someone doing it for the carrot and stick model,

You know,

That,

Oh,

I'll get,

If I do this,

I'll get this,

I will get a place in heaven.

Or if I,

If I don't do this,

You know,

The God will punish me.

So I need to do this.

So when it comes,

You know,

When it is about that carrot and stick model,

I think it becomes more of something of the ego because now either I desire something or I'm afraid of something,

But when it is unconditional,

You know,

In which someone is saying,

I will prostrate because I feel so much love.

I just feel like doing it.

I think that's beautiful versus the carrot and stick model.

So just a couple more questions and then we'll wrap up.

You're definitely versed in spirituality and meditation and in your own interest and consumption.

And I'm curious what,

I know this is typically a tough question to answer,

But if any kind of foundational books or teachers or things that have really impacted you that might be helpful to someone else,

Maybe earlier on their awakening journey.

Yeah.

I think the first most impactful book was,

And although this might not be interest to everyone,

It is a book called No God,

But God,

And it is majorly about Islam.

What it helped me with,

What it helped me,

How it helped me was that it created a paradigm shift in the sense of I started looking at religion in a very different way and it goes to the history of Islam and it made me see the history for what it is.

The problem with religions and,

You know,

With a lot of traditions is that there is a blind faith.

We don't even understand the history of how,

You know,

My own faith was created because,

And you know,

It is not the fault of people because if I'm like a busy person,

If I'm,

You know,

If I have a nine to six job and then I have to like tend to my family and then I have to do the chores and all those things,

I will not get time for that spiritual exploration to even study the religion that I'm following.

But what that book really helped me was to study the religion,

To go to the history and to see what happened.

And once we do that,

We understand the religion to the core.

And it helped me to realize that,

You know,

That how it is again,

Islam is one path.

It is not the only path.

There are many other paths.

So that opened my mind.

And then I think it was the one of the most transforming series was,

Book series was Conversations with God by Neal Donald Walsh.

And although it is more from a Christian perspective,

But I think Islam and Christianity are,

You know,

Very similar to each other.

So it helped me,

What Neal Donald Walsh does in Conversations with God is he makes the whole practice of Christianity a more spiritual practice versus a dogmatic practice.

And that helped me see that how my own practice was dogmatic,

And how can I make it more,

You know,

Less dogmatic.

So that was,

That's a beautiful,

And it's not about religion.

It's a general book series,

Which is,

You know,

Very good for life lessons and,

You know,

Spirituality.

Yeah,

I think this was a major one.

Yeah,

One of my favorites,

Definitely earlier on the journey,

Conversations with God.

So I'll give that a note.

Saqib,

Thanks for joining us today on the Awakening to Purpose podcast.

It's been a gift,

And I can't wait.

Hopefully we have another conversation soon.

Same here.

I totally enjoyed it.

I totally loved your questions.

And I think this is the first time that such deep questions,

You know,

Were asked and I totally enjoyed,

You know,

Exploring them with you.

Thanks,

Brother.

Thank you so much for listening to today's show.

If you liked it,

Please leave a review.

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So I do appreciate it.

And if you want to send me a message,

You can go to my website,

Luredbin.

Com.

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And I will see you on the next episode.

I'll beat my drum for you.

I'll sing my song for you.

I clap my hands to the beat that transforms into.

I'll beat my drum for you.

I'll sing my song for you.

I clap my hands to the beat that transforms into.

The music you heard is a song called Nova by River Roots.

Thank you so much for listening.